Cincunri Sakia

Senin, 03 Januari 2022

Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre's confidential $500k settlement with Jeffrey Epstein made public - Sky News

The woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault agreed not to sue anyone connected to Jeffrey Epstein who could be described as a "potential defendant", a newly-released document shows.

The 2009 settlement between Virginia Giuffre and disgraced financier Epstein reveals he agreed to pay her $500,000 (£370,000) to end her legal claims against him.

Details of the confidential deal were made public on Monday following an order by US judges.

Who's who in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal?

Ms Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts, is suing the Duke of York in a civil lawsuit in which she claims he "committed sexual assault and battery" upon her when she was 17.

Andrew, who has not been charged with any criminal offences, has vehemently denied the allegations against him.

His lawyers say Ms Giuffre's settlement with Epstein "releases Prince Andrew and others from any purported liability arising from the claims" she has made against the royal.

But Ms Giuffre's legal team has said the agreement applies "at most" to people involved in litigation in Florida, thereby excluding Andrew.

On Tuesday, a New York judge will hear arguments on whether to dismiss Ms Giuffre's lawsuit against the duke, which is seeking unspecified damages.

What are the 'factual allegations' stated in Virginia Giuffre's lawsuit?

Her 2009 settlement with Andrew's former friend Epstein reveals she agreed to dismiss her lawsuit against the financier "upon payment and clearance" of the $500,000.

The document states that this would also "forever discharge… any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant… from all, and all manner of, action and actions of Virginia Roberts, including state or federal..."

It adds that the agreement "represents a final resolution of a disputed claim and is intended to avoid litigation".

"The settlement agreement shall not be construed to be an admission of liability or fault by any party," the document says.

Those involved in the settlement had agreed it was "not intended to be used by any other person, nor be admissible in any proceeding or case against or involving Jeffrey Epstein, either civil or criminal", according to the document.

The settlement relates to a Florida state case to which the duke was not a party.

Andrew's legal team has described the civil case against him as "baseless" and had argued it should be thrown out as Ms Giuffre now lives in Australia - and not the US where it is being held.

But Ms Giuffre's lawyers said the duke should not have a "get out of jail free card" over matters of jurisdiction, and the judge dismissed the royal's request.

Ms Giuffre alleges that she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with Andrew when she was aged 17, a minor under US law, and was pictured with the royal and Ghislaine Maxwell during the period the alleged intercourse took place.

Her lawyers have asked for a wealth of information from Andrew's legal team as they probe his BBC Newsnight interview when he said he was visiting a Pizza Express on the day of the claimed sexual encounter.

They have requested travel documents detailing the duke's movements on Epstein's planes and to his various homes, the duke's visit to Pizza Express in Woking, and London's Tramp nightclub where Ms Giuffre alleges she danced with a heavily sweating Andrew before they had sex.

In his Newsnight interview, Andrew claimed he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat.

The release of the 2009 settlement comes after Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting underage girls to be sexually abused by her ex-boyfriend Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

If judges do not throw out Ms Giuffre's lawsuit against Andrew this week, a trial could be held between September and December 2022.

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2022-01-03 18:22:36Z
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Minggu, 02 Januari 2022

Colorado wildfires: Two missing after devastating blazes followed by heavy snow - Sky News

Search teams are looking for two missing people in the snow-covered debris of devastating wildfires that ripped through parts of Colorado.

Nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed and hundreds damaged as the blazes hit two towns in Boulder County in the US state.

For those who escaped the flames, heavy snowfall has compounded the misery.

US President Joe Biden has declared the scene a national disaster, freeing up federal funds to assist affected people and businesses in recovery efforts.

Three people were initially reported missing but one has been been accounted for, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said on Sunday.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation but Mr Pelle said authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at "one particular location", without providing further details.

After visiting some of the damaged neighbourhoods, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said: "I know this is a hard time in your life if you've lost everything or you don't even know what you lost.

"A few days ago you were celebrating Christmas at home and hanging your stockings and now home and hearth have been destroyed."

Winter grassland fires are rare in Colorado, but experts have warned similar events will be more common in the coming years as climate change warms the planet.

Professor Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan, said: "These fires are different from most of the fires we've been seeing across the West, in the sense that they're grass fires and they're occurring in the winter.

"Ultimately, things are going to continue to get worse unless we stop climate change."

The blazes burned through at least 9.4 square miles on Thursday and firefighters eventually brought it under control on New Year's Eve.

The fires had been fanned by winds of up to 105mph that helped flames leap to new ground.

Tens of thousands of people were ordered to flee, many escaping through thick smoke as the fires approached.

As the remains of properties were still smouldering on New Year's Day, the snow began to fall.

Families have been returning to their neighbourhoods to find burnt-out shells of their homes.

When resident Cathy Glaab returned to her property, she found it had been turned into a pile of charred and twisted debris. It was one of seven houses in a row that were destroyed.

"The mailbox is standing," Ms Glaab said through tears. "So many memories."

Red Cross shelter volunteers have been distributing electric heaters to residents as officials struggle to restore gas and electricity.

A historic drought and heatwaves have made wildfires harder to fight in the area, with 90% of Boulder County in severe or extreme drought having seen no substantial rainfall since mid-summer.

Extreme weather has also been taking hold in other parts of the US, with heavy snowfall disrupting road travel in the Pacific Northwest to California, and intense thunderstorms across the south damaging homes and buildings in Alabama.

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2022-01-02 21:11:08Z
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Finland insists on its right to join Nato in defiance of Russia - Financial Times

Russia’s sabre-rattling in Ukraine has reignited the debate in Finland as to whether the Nordic country should join Nato, defying demands from Moscow that seek to limit expansion of the military alliance in Europe.

Both the president Sauli Niinisto and the prime minister Sanna Marin used their new year addresses to underscore that Finland retained the option of seeking Nato membership at any time.

“Let it be stated once again: Finland’s room to manoeuvre and freedom of choice also include the possibility of military alignment and of applying for Nato membership, should we ourselves so decide,” Niinisto said.

Marin added in her separate speech that every country had the right to decide its own security policy, stressing: “We have shown that we have learnt from the past. We will not let go of our room for manoeuvre.”

Russia’s foreign ministry said last week that Finland and Sweden joining Nato “would have serious military and political consequences that would require an adequate response from the Russian side”.

As Russia amasses about 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern frontier, Washington, Moscow and Nato member states are set to meet for talks in early January. US president Joe Biden is also due to speak to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has previously refused to rule out military action and has warned he has “all kinds” of options if his demands for “security guarantees” to limit Nato expansion are unmet.

Finland and neighbouring Sweden are both militarily non-aligned but have a growing co-operation with Nato as well as strong bilateral relationships with members of the alliance such as the US, Norway and UK.

There is no sense of Finland imminently about to apply for Nato membership, but Russia’s activity on the borders of Ukraine and its list of demands just before Christmas has fired up the internal debate in Helsinki to a level last seen after the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Niinisto also warned the west that it risked empowering Russia if it removed the threat of possible military action. Citing former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger on appeasing Nazi Germany, the Finnish president said: “Whenever avoidance of war has been the primary objective of a group of powers, the international system has been at the mercy of its most ruthless member.”

Petteri Orpo, leader of the main opposition National Coalition party, a longtime supporter of Nato membership, also said that now was the time to discuss whether Finland should apply and that he believed joining would improve both its security and that of the neighbouring region.

“Russia has recently suggested that the possible Nato membership of Finland and Sweden would force it to retaliate militarily. Such a speech is reprehensible and ultimately says more about Russia’s ultimate goals than Finland’s or Sweden’s. Finland does not pose a threat to Russia now or in any other way,” Orpo said on Thursday in a post on his party’s website.

Atte Harjanne, an active reservist and head of the parliamentary group of the Green party, a member of the ruling five-party government coalition, said the arguments for Finland joining had been “strengthened” and that the country should join immediately.

Leading politicians in all three Baltic countries believe that Finnish and Swedish membership of Nato is crucial for improving the security situation on Russia’s western border amid worries not just about Ukraine but also Belarus and its use of migrants to test Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Finland and Sweden joining Nato “could make entire northern Europe much more stable and safer,” said Marko Mihkelson, head of Estonia’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

Finland is one of the few European countries that did not significantly cut its military strength after the cold war as its 1,340km-long border with Russia, and memories of the bitterly fought 1939-40 winter war against the Soviet Union, ensured security matters retained a high priority.

Finland has also retained close diplomatic and commercial ties with Russia, and security experts say that Niinisto is perhaps the European leader most respected by his Russian counterpart Putin, with whom he has regular conversations.

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2022-01-02 18:46:53Z
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Unidentified person crosses demilitarised zone into North Korea - Sky News

An unidentified person has crossed the demilitarised zone into North Korea.

The person was spotted using surveillance equipment on the eastern portion of the heavily fortified border on Saturday night, but South Korean troops failed to capture them.

The DMZ stretches from coast to coast on the Korean peninsular. It is about 2.5 miles (4km) wide and heavily mined, with barbed wire fences and armed guards patrolling both sides.

It came after North Korea leader Kim Jong Un warned of a "great life-and-death struggle" for his nation as he marked the end of his 10th year in power.

A military officer who spoke anonymously to Reuters said South Korea had sent a message to the North on Sunday morning to ensure the safety of the unidentified person.

The North, which has adopted a shoot-on-sight policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, is not believed to have responded to the message.

There was public uproar in September 2020 when North Korean troops shot dead a South Korean fisheries official who went missing at sea, something which Pyongyang blamed on COVID rules and apologised for.

It is unclear whether the incident marks a rare case of a South Korean attempting to defect to the North, or if it was a North Korean who was returning.

When the Korean War ended in 1953, the two sides only signed a truce, not a peace treaty, meaning they are technically still at war.

Although about 34,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the late 1990s to avoid poverty and political oppression, the majority escape the country through North Korea's border with China.

Defections through the DMZ are very rare. Although agents and spies did cross the DMZ during the height of the Cold War rivalry between the two countries, these incidents have not been reported in recent years.

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2022-01-02 17:19:11Z
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Cape Town fire: Flames break out at South Africa's parliament - Sky News

A fire has broken out at South Africa's parliament in Cape Town.

Flames could be seen and a column of smoke rose into the sky early on Sunday morning, beginning at about 5.30am local time (3.30am in the UK).

The blaze started in third-floor offices and spread to the National Assembly chamber, local fire service spokesman Jermaine Carelse said, adding that no one had been injured.

The roof area also caught light and authorities feared that parts of buildings, some of them first built in the late 1800s, might collapse because of the heat.

Some 35 firefighters are on the scene tackling the blaze.

Patricia de Lille, minister of public works, said the flames had been contained in the chamber of the National Council of Provinces - the upper house - but continued to burn in the National Assembly chamber.

"We can't tell you exactly where the fire started," she said, adding that it was a "very sad day for our democracy".

Police have begun to investigate and President Cyril Ramaphosa has been briefed.

The president and many of South Africa's high-ranking politicians were in Cape Town for the funeral service of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which took place on Saturday at the city's St George's Cathedral, about a block away from the parliament precinct.

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2022-01-02 09:45:00Z
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Sabtu, 01 Januari 2022

Colorado wildfires: Hundreds of homes destroyed and tens of thousands evacuated - Sky News

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and tens of thousands of residents evacuated as wildfires spread across part of the US state of Colorado.

At least one first responder and six others were injured after the flames took hold following an extremely dry autumn in the region and a winter that has so far not seen any snow.

More injuries and also deaths could be possible due to the intensity of the fires, Boulder County sheriff Joe Pelle acknowledged.

He said it was "the kind of fire we can't fight head on" and that in some areas, sheriffs and firefighters had to pull out "because they just got overrun".

The blaze, reported just after 11am on Thursday, local time, had "ballooned and spread rapidly east" to span 2.5 square miles, he added.

Some fires in the area were also sparked by downed power lines.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of the cities of Louisville and Superior, which are around 20 miles north west of Denver and home to a combined 34,000 people.

Surrounding them are towns filled with shopping centres, parks and schools.

The fires, fuelled by winds of up to 105mph, have already burned an estimated 580 homes, a hotel and a shopping centre.

Cars jammed in queues as they tried to flee the area waited for up to 45 minutes to move about half a mile.

Meanwhile, wind gusts caused the blaze to jump and spread, resulting in small fires taking hold in places such as a patch of grass or a car park.

Skies turned black amid the blare of emergency sirens as smoke spread.

A large plume of smoke from the fire was visible in Denver.

Leah Angstman, who was on a bus returning home to Louisville from Denver airport that was forced to stop due to poor visibility, described how it was buffeted by heavy winds.

"The wind rocked the bus so hard that I thought the bus would tip," she said.

"The sky was dark, dark brown, and the dirt was blowing in swirls across the sidewalk like snakes."

Colorado governor Jared Polis declared a state of emergency, which allows the state to access disaster emergency funds.

Mr Polis said flames were consuming football field-lengths of land in seconds, describing the fires as a "force of nature".

A historic drought and heatwaves have made wildfires harder to fight in the western United States.

Nine-tenths of Boulder County is in severe or extreme drought and has not seen substantial rainfall since mid-summer.

Keith Musselman, a snow hydrologist who lives in the region, said: "With any snow on the ground, this absolutely would not have happened in the way that it did."

He said a severe fire risk would be expected in September and October but a lack of any rain or snow this late in the season was highly unusual.

A forecast for up to a foot of snow to arrive in the next day could help relieve the situation, he said.

Extreme weather has also been taking hold in other parts of the US, with heavy snowfall disrupting road travel in the Pacific west from Washington state to California and intense thunderstorms across the south damaging homes and buildings in Alabama.

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2022-01-02 02:20:19Z
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Kashmir: At least 12 killed in stampede at Hindu shrine - Sky News

At least 12 people have been killed and 15 injured in a stampede at a popular Hindu shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.

The crush in the early morning at the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine came as a thousands gathered to mark the start of the new year.

India's prime minister Narendra Modi offered condolences in a message on Twitter, saying he was "extremely saddened by the loss of lives".

Initial reports suggested an altercation between a group of devotees had led to the crush.

One eyewitness, who gave the name Mahesh, said: "Something happened near one of the gates and I found myself under a crush of people.

"I suffocated and fell but somehow managed to stand up.

"I saw people moving over the bodies.

"It was a horrifying sight, but I managed to help in rescuing some injured people."

Another devotee called Priyansh, who had arrived with ten friends from New Delhi on Friday night, said two of them died in the crush.

Police chief Dilbag Singh was quoted by Press Trust of India news agency as saying that authorities were quick to respond and that order within the crowd was immediately restored.

The pilgrimage resumed after nearly four hours, officials said, and an investigation was underway.

The hilltop temple is one of the most visited shrines in northern India.

The incident comes after a stampede in 2013 in central Madhya Pradesh state when pilgrims visiting a temple for a Hindu festival trampled over each other amid fears that a bridge would collapse, and at least 115 people were crushed to death or died in the river below.

In 2011, more than 100 Hindu devotees died in a crush at a religious festival in the southern state of Kerala.

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2022-01-01 14:20:44Z
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Senin, 03 Januari 2022

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